The Strider Rule
by Venjess
Summary: Strider's aren't supposed to cry, they aren't supposed to blush or shake, they aren't supposed to be scared or frightened. They gotta just get down and do what needs doing without complaint. That's the Strider Rule. But Dirk can't help but break it.


**Okay, so I have been having a lot of trouble uploading this gosh darned story so now I'm really annoyed.**

**Anyway, this stemmed from my having emotions over Dirk and his death because no.**

**Also, this totally doesn't count for my Romanstuck because there's no romance or relationships in it whatsoever! Loopholes!**

**Yeah.**

**I don't own Homestuck.**

**Dirk is attractive.**

**Enjoy if you can, I mean, it's pretty repetitive and stuff (I was really tired when I wrote this okay)**

* * *

**Introduce yourself**

Your name is DIRK STRIDER and right now you are breaking a RULE you were taught by your BRO. You are holding the SENDIFICATOR in your HANDS and you are shaking and sweating and you know what you have to do and you know you have to just get down and do it. But you are FRIGHTENED.

And Striders aren't supposed to be frightened.

What will you do?

**Dirk: Don't do the thing.**

You have to do the thing. The thing you are about to do will save your friends. It's going to hurt and a lot of it is hinging on someone else being willing to kiss your decapitated head, and you don't feel too comfortable relying on someone else to save you. But you don't really have much of a choice right now.

Roxy's dead body is on the ground next to you and even though you know her dream self is now awake, it still hurts your heart a little to see her like that, to taste the blood on your lips from the kiss you gave her.

It had been inconvenient and generally annoying when your dream self had been knocked out and you feel worry giving you a slight headache as you wonder whether Jane would be alright.

As far as you knew, there wasn't a limit to how long it took you to kiss the person's corpse. As long as there was the smooching going on, they'd wake up right?

But you don't want to risk it.

You need to get to her as soon as possible.

But you're still a little scared.

You're putting your life in the hands of two people, one of which didn't even have hands and didn't really count as a proper person and the other which was… well, _Jake_.

Not to say you didn't trust Jake. You were just a little uncomfortable with the idea that you wouldn't be able to come back to life unless he was willing to kiss your bloody, decapitated head.

Even you would be a little reluctant to kiss your own head when it was separate from your body.

Then again, it would be kind of weird to kiss yourself in the first place so that example isn't really relevant.

You raise the sendificator slowly, casting one last look at your friend's body, reminding yourself of the reason you are doing this in the first place.

You have no choice in the matter.

A Strider's gotta do what a Strider's gotta do.

And currently, that meant you had to kill yourself.

**Dirk: Just get on with it then.**

You lower the sendificator over your head, feeling the way your heart pounds in your chest and sweat runs in rivulets down your back. As your view of the room you are standing in is slowly cut in half – dark red, the colour of blood, descending and filling your vision – you shut your eyes tight, unable to stand the sight.

Your hot breath is blown right back at you in the tight compartment, your hair is flattened on the top of your skull and you feel like you're suffocating. The panicked, desperate thought flutters across your mind to just stop.

You can find another way.

Can't you?

But there's no time.

And there is no other way.

Your fingers find the small button on the side of the sendificator that will transport you to the location you had previously input. That is, it'll transport your _head_ to where Jake is.

The rest of you will be staying behind.

You wonder if there's another, alternative timeline where you don't do what you're about to do. You wonder if that's the Alpha timeline and this is just a great big fuck-up on your behalf, or if the you that chickens out is the one who is the fuck-up.

When you next wake up, you'll find out whether you saved your friends, or doomed them all. The pressure of the act is squeezing your chest and you feel that if it weren't for your Bro's lessons, you would have thrown the sendificator away from you in an instant.

Instead, you take a deep, shuddering breath. The last one you would be taking in this body.

You finger hovers above the button and you pray that at least it won't hurt. _Please_, let it be painless. You were allowed to ask for the one mercy, right?

At least it wasn't one of the others who had to do this, right?

You press the button.

* * *

Had you been of stable mind you might have thought about how _unfair_ it was that it _hurt so much_.

But you couldn't think of anything beyond the pain.

You couldn't breathe.

You couldn't see.

Red was everywhere and nowhere and everything was gone and hurting.

It feels like you're burning and your mouth is opened, but no sound is coming out. You no longer have a voice-box to scream with after all.

And you know that surely, one way or another, the pain was going to end.

And you had tried to hold it in, that was the Strider Rule.

But there was no one around.

And there was no one to see.

The Strider Rule didn't really apply anymore.

* * *

**Can I get a heck yeah for really weak endings!?**

**No?**

**Well, shucks.**

**Oh well, I really didn't know what to do with this.**

**Anyway, feel free to check out some of my other stories and stuff, and if you would review on this i'd be ever so grateful.**

**Gosh I'm tired.**


End file.
